How Cloud Construct created an additional income stream through SaaS
Bespoke Software
Case Study
Client:
Board Clever
Cloud Construct service:
Bespoke software development.
AWS cloud hosting.
Board Clever is a SaaS (software as a service) for board erectors. Board erectors put up sales boards outside of properties on behalf of estate agents.
The software provides route planning, invoicing, board and customer management. It also provides a customer portal to allow their estate agent customers to create and keep track of on-going jobs themselves, all for a monthly fee.
Board Clever is owned and developed by Cloud Construct.
Highlights
Follow a manual added link
Challenges
- Poor route planning was wasting board erectors’ time and money
- Admin tasks would also cut into their profitable time
- Establishing a new business, especially SaaS, carries risks
Follow a manual added link
Solutions
- Intelligent route planning saves users time and money
- Custom APIs streamline admin and workflows
- AWS offers cost efficiency and scalability
Follow a manual added link
Results
- Board Clever users report significant time and cost savings – up to £14k per year for an annual £1,200 subscription fee
- It also provides additional sales opportunities for users, due to better board tracking
- The SaaS provides a lucrative revenue stream for Cloud Construct
When you’re a board erector, the business model is simple. The more boards you can put up in a day, the more money you can make. The model is simple, but the execution is more complicated.
Poor route planning was wasting time and money
Board Clever and Cloud Construct’s founder Pete Barfield explains: “Clients would tell us that they were either spending hours planning the most direct routes between houses, or they were going out and driving long or jumbled routes, which was eating up petrol.
Either way, they weren’t using their time or resources efficiently. They knew things had to change.”
Disputes with estate agents could also be an issue.
“Sometimes agents would argue that a board hadn’t been erected. If they (board erectors) weren’t able to prove it, they could lose out on payment and their reputation could be damaged. They needed a way to prove they’d done the work.”
Admin tasks would also cut into board erector’s profitable time
“In some cases, it would take them days to process all the invoices. And often they’d be spending their leisure time on it – evenings or weekends – so they could dedicate their business hours to more profitable activities.
The introduction of ‘Making Tax Digital’ has also been putting pressure on businesses to digitise their accountancy workflows.”
The software had to be easy to use
“Many board erectors told us that they’re “technological dinosaurs”. Whatever we created had to be easy to use, fit in with their working practices and have a good level of customer service and support.”
Establishing a new business, especially SaaS, carries risks
“From our point of view, we were well aware of the failure rates for start ups. 42% of businesses fail due to lack of product/market fit (according to NatWest). This is particularly true for SaaS companies, with 92% estimated to fail within 3 years.
We knew we needed to keep costs to a minimum, our product clearly focused on what would be most useful for our target customers and identify opportunities to scale up the business in the future.”
Solutions
Customer feedback has been at the heart of Board Clever’s development. Cloud Construct started with an MVP and over time we’ve added and improved features to solve customers’ business problems and to streamline their workflows.
Pete explains: “It keeps everything focused and cost efficient. We’re not wasting time or money on ‘flashy’ or ‘fashionable’ tech just for the sake of it. Everything we implement and recommend serves a purpose.”
Intelligent route planning saves time and money
Cloud Construct build Board Clever with intelligent route planning, using Google Maps and Places and an address look up system.
The board erectors’ drivers choose where they want to start and finish, then input the addresses/postcodes into the software. Board Clever then plots the most direct and fuel efficient route for the driver to take.
The driver has the option to follow it on a mobile device or print the list of locations.
Pete explains: “Drivers can update their progress while out on the road and stay in touch with the office.”
Custom APIs streamline admin and workflows
Cloud Construct developed Board Clever so it integrates into the key systems for running a business. It seamlessly integrates with Making Tax Digital compliant accounting software like Xero, Quickbooks and FreeAgent. It integrates with Go Cardless to process online payments for subscriptions. And Hubspot integrations provides CRM, email marketing and chatbots to ensure a high level of customer service.
AWS offers cost efficiency and scalability
Pete explains: “We built Board Clever 10 years ago on a couple of virtual machines to keep costs to a minimum. If we were starting today, we’d use AWS Lightsail as the virtual private server. It’s cost efficient and, when you’re ready, migration to a larger EC2 AWS instance is straightforward.
We use AWS S3 for image and document uploads – it’s easily scalable and we only pay for what we need. And as the business grows, the next step would be to migrate our database to the AWS cloud.”
Results
“Using Board Clever has drastically reduced the time I have to spend on admin and allowed me to get out of the office and back on the road!”
Andrew, Sign of the Times
“The feedback we have from customers has been fantastic,” Pete Barfield says. “It’s cut invoicing time from 1.5 days to an hour or two. Tasks take 1 minute of Board Clever, compared to 5+ minutes on competitor software. This is saving them a lot of money – £14,000 per year in some cases.”
Better tracking of boards has also led to more jobs for users. By law, estate agents can only keep sales boards up for a certain amount of time. Otherwise they’re infringing Advertising Standards. Board Clever users can identify when they need to be taken down, and then charge for the service.
And, importantly, the software is easy to use.
“I was immediately impressed with the maturity of the software and friendliness of the guys behind it. I needed the support to be there from the off otherwise I’d have given up. The staff at Board Clever helped me get the best from the system.
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut doing the same thing, becoming a technology dinosaur – Board Clever made me realise the need to move on.
I have trained 53 of my estate agents, all bar one now use Board Clever which hugely reduced the admin burden from me. Board Clever takes care of everything for me, I very rarely need to talk to anyone at the agencies.
The time that it saves me is worth its weight in gold, I’m mad at myself for not making the move sooner!”
Dan Curtis, AB Signs
For Cloud Construct, Board Clever activity is focused on providing customer service and ongoing maintenance to ensure that everything is in working order. The hard work has been done. It’s a lucrative additional revenue stream for Cloud Construct and saves their customers a lot of money. It’s a winning combination and the future is promising.
Future Plans
Cloud Construct is now looking to grow Board Clever through a tiered pricing strategy and offering additional services, such as a photo upload feature, so users can take a photo on site and prove that the work has been done.
